hel, world of the dead
by Adhara Snow
Summary: Canon Divergence. Mikael takes in the orphaned daughter of a dear childhood friend, and she turns out to be the Original Siblings' Salvation. Or, Kaja Magnusdottir is a Mikaelson long before she marries one of Mikael's sons. Pre-serie. Rating M for later chapters.
1. KAJA

Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries and The Originals. All characters, locations, plots you recognize belong to their rightful owners.

In which I write a story where the original family is not as broken as it is in canon.

There is a **life** and there is a **death** and there are **beauty** and **melancholy** between.

 _Albert Camus._

* * *

 **THE VIKING AGE** _793 - 1066_

 _Mikael takes in the orphaned daughter of a dear childhood friend, and she turns out to be the Original Siblings' Salvation._

Or

Kaja Magnusdottir is a Mikaelson long before she marries one of Mikael's sons.

 **CHARACTERS**

 **KAJA MAGNUSDOTTIR** [born 972, Faroe Islands]

▷"You are not like anybody else. This world, it is too smaller for you."

 **MIKAEL** [born 940, somewhere in Finland]

▷"Hell is something you carry around with you, not somewhere you go."

 **ESTHER** [born 939, somewhere in Denmark]

▷"Do not find peace. Find passion."

 **NIKLAUS MIKAELSON** [born 969, New World - Vinland*]

▷"Those who are heartless once cared too much."

 **FINN MIKAELSON** [born 960, Denmark]

▷"And sometimes, against all odds, against all logic, we hope."

 **ELIJAH MIKAELSON** [born 963, Denmark]

▷"Love has teeth which bite and the wounds never close."

 **KOL MIKAELSON** [born 972, New World - Vinland]

▷ **"** We were both chaos searching for calm in each other and calling it home."

 **REBEKAH MIKAELDOTTIR** [born 976, New World - Vinland]

▷"At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can."

 **HENRIK MIKAELSON** [born 981, New World - Vinland]

▷"I want to do things for people they will never forget. Maybe that's the best thing I can do in life."

* fact, the Norsemen called America _Vinland_

* * *

1.

KAJA

 _She dreamed the old red dream. Ashes and fire and blood. Wolves and men. Gods and monsters. Life and death. And war._

 **Spring 980,**

 **A Viking Settlement in the New World.**

Kaja, daughter of Jarl Magnus, was eight years old and she knew for certain at least three things.

The first one was that she was an orphan, but she didn't really mind. Her true mother and father were dead, but she wasn't alone.

She had Mikael who, although grumpy and a bit scary, had taken her in and treated like a daughter; Esther who always cooked her sweet meals and was teaching her all the things girls should know.

She had sweet Finn, kind Elijah, even stupid Kol who wouldn't let her borrow his toys but always cuddled her when she had bad dreams and baby Rebekah who couldn't do much of anything without looking precious.

She had Nik and he was at once a best friend and her favorite person in the whole world.

Second: spring had finally come, and it was beautiful, like a dream. The past winter had been so cold and dreary and long she had thought it'd last forever.

Lastly, and this was something she had just learnt, she knew that Esther was going to have another baby.

"Do you think it will be another boy?" She asked after Esther had shared with them the big news.

She continued without waiting for a reply, "I hope it's a girl. I mean there are already a lot of boys around, we could use another girl."

Kol groaned, still half asleep, "Will you stop your blabbering? You always make the dumbest questions."

She scowled at him, "You are dumb!"

Before the two children could degenerate in a petty quarrel Mikael snapped, "Be quiet, you two! Kol, watch your tone, Kaja the same goes for you. Ladies don't have a foul mouth."

 _Boring,_ she thought. Ladies were really pretty, she supposed, but they were never allowed to do anything funny. They didn't play outside, and they didn't go riding like Nik did. What good was being a lady if she couldn't even do what she liked?

Chastised, Kol and Kaja dropped their gaze after one last glare.

Finn, the eldest son and by far the sweetest - or so Kaja thought - cleared his throat. "It could be a girl, Kaja. Or it could be a boy - you can't decide, it just happens."  
He sounded like he had already said the same words many times - and he probably had. He wasn't much impressed by the imminent arrival of a new sibling, nor were Elijah and Nik but Kol was.

Kaja knew how much he resented being the youngest son, he didn't like it when Finn or Elijah called him 'baby brother'. A new, younger brother - that's what the boy was hoping for.

 _Stupid Kol,_ Kaja thought. Rebekah was younger than him so he already was an older brother. For some reason, Kol never seemed to think about Rebekah. Kaja had a feeling it was because she was a girl.

 _Stupid Kol,_ she thought again scowling at him.

The boy didn't know the reason behind that dark face, but he frowned right back at her.

Esther put a hand on her still flat belly. "If it is a girl I hope she has dark hair like you and blue eyes like me." She said these words to her husband, with a mysterious smile on her mouth, like she knew the secret of life, and a soft look in her eyes.

Mikael's lips thinned briefly, "We could call her Kendra, in that case."

 _Kendra,_ it was a pretty name meaning 'dark of hair'.

Kaja rather liked the sound of it, she wished her own name was that pretty. But that name couldn't possibly suit her.

Mikael had dark hair which had been passed down to all his sons expect Niklaus. It was a bit of sore spot for the boy. He and Rebekah took after their mother, they had her golden hair and sky blue eyes.

Kaja rolled a lock of hair with her finger, examinating it. When she had been a little girl Rebekah's age she had fancied herself Esther and Mikael's daughter.

She felt like a fool thinking about it now. She didn't look one bit like them, her hair was a lighter blond and her eyes were of a deep blue that didn't resemble Esther's light eyes in the least.

She wasn't their daughter, however much she wished she was.

 **Beginning of 981**  
 _There was smoke all around her, she could barely see through it. And in her mouth the foul taste of liquid iron, of blood, of_ death _._

It was another boy. Kaja was disappointed for a few seconds before falling in love with baby Henrik.

He looked even smaller than Rebekah had been, a bundle of furs hid his tiny body.

She smiled softly, observing how his little hands closed in a fist locked on his mother's loose hair.

Even Mikael couldn't look away from his wife and it was one of those rare times where he looked like he was about to smile. Kaja left the room to join Nik out.

She had fallen asleep on Finn's lap while they were waiting for Esther to give birth to the child, but the older boy had woken her up when Ayana, the witch-healer of their village and Esther's good friend, had come out of the birthing room to give them the good news.

Nik was holding Rebekah, still asleep. Finn and Elijah had gone out to collect more wood for the fire.

Kol looked up when he heard the door opening. "I told you it'd be a boy."

Kaja could have sneered down at him but she was in a good mood.

"Stop pestering Kaja and speak quietly, can't you see Bekah is sleeping?" Nik was whispering. Kol just rolled his eyes, muttering to himself.

Kaja ignored him, "He's so cute Nik! As little as a scrawny cat." She said, sitting down next to the older boy and making wide movements with her hands to show him the child's size.

Nik quirked his lips upwards with humor, while Kol snorted, amused by her words despite himself. "Is that so?"

"Why didn't go in to look at him yourself?" she asked perplexed, "Aren't you happy about your new baby brother?"

Nik shifted smoothly Rebekah on his lap to be more comfortable, holding his little sister more tightly. "Of course we are glad - Mother is fine, the baby is healthy and Father got another son to keep him happy. But it's not like it's anything new to us."

"What Niklaus is trying to say is that we are a big family already - there's six of us now, plus you. The winter was harsh last year and we made it through only because we've been rationing all our stored food." Kol paused looking at her intently. "Now Mother will need to eat more and better than us if she wants to breast feeding Henrik, if we want him to survive."

Kaja scowled at him darkly, "Don't speak like that Kol." She didn't know why he was suddenly so somber, he had looked so satisfied when he his father had informed them all that they had a new brother.

Kol sneered down at her, "In case you didn't notice, winter is upon us. Better not get to attached to the little boy." He stomped away before she could snap at him like she wanted.

That didn't stop her from yelling after him, " _You are so stupid, Kol!_ "

She could feel tears begin to form in her eyes. _Why is he always so mean?_

Rebekah startled awake briefly before Niklaus hushed her back to a comfortable slumber in his lap. He looked at her fondly for a moment and put his chin on her blonde head. Kaja knew that Elijah was his favorite brother, but Nik had a special place in his heart for Rebekah.

"Kol doesn't mean to be so spiteful you know, he's just very good at guarding his heart." He patted the space beside him and nodded Kaja to seat with him.

She did, sighing and leaning on his shoulder. It was in times like these that she half believed that Kol didn't have a kind bone in his body.

Was it too much for him to behave like Finn? Finn was always controlled, calm - he was even kinder than Elijah. He brought herbs and flowers for his mother, hunted with his father, taught his younger brothers to protect themselves and played with her and Rebekah at the end of the day.

Kol was the opposite. He was mischievous and had a temper that he took from Mikael - that made him vicious when he wanted to be - or when he was guarding his heart, as Niklaus put it.

Kaja scoffed internally.

"Mother lost a child some years ago, Father too. Her name was Freya. "

He revealed suddenly, taking her aback. She could only feel shock in that moment, how did she not know that?

"It was before you came to live with us, " Nik explained when he saw her expression. "Kol wasn't even born by then and neither was I. She was five,born before Finn even and she didn't survive, she got sick in winter and didn't make it. Mother was inconsolable, father raged for days. He had not been home when she died, he was out hunting." He shivered. "Finn said it broke his heart and it never mended."

She took his hand between hers, "I'm so sorry, Nik. It's horrible." The words came out as a whisper while her eyes stilled on the spot where Kol had been. She felt her heart clench and suddenly she wished he was still there so she could smother him in a hug and see him smile that smug grin of his.  
She fell asleep with Nik's hand still tight in hers.

 **Summer, 982**

 _When she looked her reflection in the water, she didn't see herself._ _She saw a demon._

When she turned ten, two major turning points of her life occurred.

Firstly, Mikael decided that she was growing up and as such it wasn't proper anymore for her to sleep in the same room with the boys. After that startling observation - she was really growing up, she was taller than last year and her hair was longer- he and Finn began widening the house to make space for another room. Rebekah would sleep with her. She didn't know how she felt about that. When she had nightmares she always cuddled closer to Kol, who surprisingly never mocked her for that. As much as she loved little Rebekah she doubted she would be as comforting.

Secondly, Esther began training Kol and her in art of witchcraft. Kaja knew that she had inherited her father's gift for magic and consequently was eager to learn. She wondered which spell the woman would teach them, but when asked Esther shook her head with a smile. "A witch is a servant of Nature therefore your first lesson shall be about communicating with her."  
She and Kol shared a rare look of confusion and wonder.

Esther brought them into the the depth of the forest, where the rays of the sun could barely pass through the waved branches of the trees.  
Esther called them to attention, "Now, you know that a witch's power is linked to the very earth we walk on. The power that flows through you is the power of the earth. It keeps us centered."

Kaja let her words echo without making a sound, Kol did the same, fascinated as he was.  
"Put your hands on the trunk of that tree," the woman continued, almost whispering, pointing her finger towards a great tree that Kaja identified as a oak. She did as told, Kol doing the same.  
"And feel, " said Esther with the same mysterious tone.

Kaja sent a quizzical look to the boy in front of her. Kol nodded and placed his hands on hers - they were the same age yet Kol's hands were bigger. Kaja noticed a lone mole on his wrist. She didn't know why that particular grabbed her attention, but it did.

It was subtle, barely at the back of her mind, a tingle that she never noticed. But suddenly it was everywhere - like Esther said. A pull that kept her anchored to the earth. And then there were soft whispers in her ears. Women's voices, men's voices - witches' voices. Kaja knew without explanation that those voices belonged to her ancestors. She felt them as if they were physical presences close to her - taking her into their arms, caressing her hair, telling her how proud she was going to make them.

She breathed and opened her eyes (she couldn't remember closing them) and suddenly she was looking into Kol's eyes. They were lovely, alive with power; she wondered if hers looked the same in that moment. Where their hands touched she felt a pleasant tingle.  
The boy rarely smiled at her, however that day he beamed in her direction. _Can you feel it?_ His eyes asked.  
She answered with a beam of her own. _Yes._

When they came back the following day multiple flowers had grown on that same trunk they had touched.

* * *

a _jarl_ isa viking noble who ranks immediately below the king.


	2. ELIJAH

2.

ELIJAH

 **Early Spring, 983**

They left at dawn. His father wanted to catch a wild boar for dinner. It was the right season for it, he had said, and everyone had taken his words. Elijah didn't think anyone would ever doubt his father's hunting skills.

Mikael took a horse and let Finn take one as well but had deemed him too young or inexperienced or unworthy – he really did not know – to ride besides him. He told himself he was fine with that, Kol hadn't been allowed one either and Niklaus had been all but forbidden to come.

Elijah fought a grimace. He couldn't begin to understand his father's urge to humiliate his brother at every chance he got. Niklaus was never disrespectful, rude or disobedient - he was a sweet boy, quick to laugh, easy to love. But there was also a melancholy to him, a sense of doom he couldn't quite comprehend.

It took them little time, with their father's confident and quiet steps, to find the animal they were looking for. It was a beast the size of a small pony. His father lifted his sword above his head, when the animal tried to charge him.

Finn did the same and nodded to Elijah, urging him to stay ready. Kol raised his bow and did not look away when his father pierced through the boar's body with a single, sure gesture.

He tried to appear unimpressed and calm, but Elijah knew that the sight had shaken him. The first hunt always was.  
He put a hand on his shoulder, and Kol looked over at his older brother. "You did well," Elijah told him solemnly.

Their father was removing the beast's head, as they spoke.

Finn looked over at him and glared coldly at the hand that was still on Kol's shoulder. His eyes were a color so dark they seemed almost black - he was only a couple of years older than him but was more muscular and broad than him.

 _Do not coddle him. Father will know._ He had said years ago, when Niklaus was Kol's age, a young boy at his first hunt.  
Elijah swiftly removed his hand, before his father could see. He knew very well that the older man would not take kindly to his comforting gesture.

Kol saw Finn's glance as well and didn't seem to understand his reasonings. "Ass," he hissed, low enough so his eldest brother did not hear. Elijah shook his head, Kol never appreciated Finn's inputs - however well meant they were.

They didn't get along, they were too different. Or so Elijah thought. Finn was quiet, calm, the ever-dutiful son; Kol was wild, hot-tempered, with a sharp tongue that often put him in trouble.

Finn was like a peaceful rain, Kol was like the tempest.  
And then there was Elijah, who was neither, the easily forgotten child.

When his father finished taking off the boar's head, he turned towards them.  
"The beast died bravely," he commented. He gestured to Finn to help him and together they managed to put the body of the animal on his dark horse. "He had courage."

Elijah shifted on his feet when his father looked at him, then stiffened when the older man glanced at Kol.  
"What do you think?" He asked.

Kol was too proud to show how taken aback he was by the question, but Elijah knew better. He remembered when father had asked him that same question, on his first hunt, all those years ago. He did the same with Niklaus.

Kol seemed to think about it. "I think it was scared, father."

Their father was not impressed. "Yes, it was. But it was also brave. This is something you best keep in mind. We're the most courageous in the face of death. Warriors who die in terror alone are only men." Elijah almost smiled at that.

It was colder on the way back to their village, and silent. Once again, their father and Finn rode before them.

The sun was high in the sky by the time they reached home. Their mother was in the kitchen with the witch Ayana, talking about Frigga and her seiðr, while also cooking a light lunch. She paused to smile softly at them, glancing over at Kol swiftly seemingly to look for injuries. Then she smiled another kind of smile for their father only and said, "Mikael." _A wife's smile for his husband,_ Elijah thought.

His father presented her with his successful hunt and nodded respectfully towards Ayana. Then he looked around before asking, "Where are the children?"  
He would always ask that after being away from home, even for few hours.

Mother rose from her chair. "Henrik is playing with Rebekah by the old white oak." She hesitated. "Kaja and Niklaus are by the lake, I believe she wanted to show him some flower he could use for his drawings."

Elijah stiffened, Niklaus's love for the finer things in life was a sore spot for their father. Fortunately, the man was in a good mood and only shook his head. "Of course he is." He muttered. "The girl is always coddling him, Esther."

Mother sighed, shifting her eyes from Ayana to their father. Elijah knew then that she didn't wish to speak about that in the presence of the witch - she was a family friend but not _family_.

Father understood that and kept quiet but quelled her with a look that conveyed his displeasure. Finn made to follow the man out of the house, but he was halted. Mikael had a serious look on his face as he observed his sons with a calm expression. "One of you go fetch the boy," he ordered. He rarely, if ever, called Niklaus by his name "He shall help me skin the boar." Then he was out of the door.

Elijah grimaced briefly, Niklaus would not like that. Finn turned towards him and fixed him with his usual stone look, "You go, brother." He resembled his father when he did that - he had the same aura of authority and yet he was completely different.

Kol looked about to sneer at him but obviously thought better, Elijah was thankful for that. Finn didn't care for disrespect and he would have doubtlessly punished the boy for that.

Elijah nodded. Soon after that, Finn left as well.

He briefly informed his mother that he was going to retrieve his younger brother and Kaja.  
"Be a dear and collect the rest of your siblings as well on your way back. They must be hungry."  
Elijah kissed her forehead and turned to leave. Kol's voice stopped him.

"Wait up, I'm coming with you."

He raised his eyebrows in surprise but didn't comment. "Very well," was his simple answer.

While they walked towards the lake that was just outside their village, Kol was suspiciously quiet. Elijah peeked at him and found him frowning. He sighed, already knowing he'd regret asking, "Brother, is something wrong?"

Kol gave him a look, "Why do you ask?"

Elijah quirked his lips upwards, amused. "Why do you respond to a question with another question?"

Kol scowled at him, not appreciating his dry humor. "Nothing is wrong with me." He said, at last.  
Elijah was almost tempted to scoff, but he replied simply, "Alright."

They kept on walking silently for a few minutes. From afar, they could still hear the villagers chattering and moving about, children laughing and men jesting. It was a peculiar sound.

"Why do you reckon they are always together?" His brother's question shook him from his musings.  
He had to think a moment before realization dawned on him. "Kaja and Niklaus?" He paused. "They do get along very well."

Kol snorted, "They don't simply 'get along'. You and I get along, you and Finn get along - but those two? They behave like they are attached by the hips."

Elijah nodded musingly, he could see where Kol was coming from. Kaja and Niklaus did share a very unusually strong bond. They were both sweet children who enjoyed greatly each other's company - always playing games together.

"What of it?" He asked.

"It's a tad unusual, don't you think?" His younger brother insisted, petulantly. It almost looked like he was pouting - then again, Kol would never do such a thing. Maybe.

Elijah was starting to see where this was going. "Why do you care?" He teased. His little brother was such a possessive boy. He simply couldn't bear the thought of Kaja enjoying herself with his older brother, yet he always mocked her, treating her cruelly at times. It was like he couldn't make up his mind about how to behave with her. He hid a grin.

Kol scoffed, "She always put herself in trouble, doesn't she? Running about like some kind of savage, looking for flowers or whichever stupid thing it is today."

Elijah laughed at that. One day, he remembered, Kaja came home grinning her toothy grin, her beautiful blond hair all tangled and her clothes covered in mud, clutching a raggedy bunch of red and yellow flowers. Mother had been appalled, Father beyond furious.  
He was about to reply, when he heard something, "What's that sound?"

Kol seemed to hear it too, floating through the woods, a sort of...  
Chuckle, he realized. He knew whom they belonged to. "This way," he said, marching through a stand of trees, Kol at his heels.

Beyond, in a clearing overlooking the lake, they came upon a boy and girl bent over something on the ground. The former years older and a head taller, the latter a skinny little thing with soiled boots. They were grinning.

"Niklaus, Kaja!" He called, while he and Kol made their way to them.  
The two swung their heads towards him, at the same time. Kaja raised her hand in greeting. As they neared, he noticed a sort of orange pasture on the ground. A tincture Niklaus could use for his drawings, he told himself.

"Mother says it's almost lunchtime, " he informed Kaja. Then looked at his blonde brother, "And Father wants your help in skinning the boar. "

Niklaus looked up, startled. On one hand, skinning dead, bloody animals was a job he hated, on the other hand Father actually wanted to spend time with him. Elijah knew how rare that circumstance was.

"Better you wash your hands first." Kol sneered at his older brother, glancing at the odd color spread on Niklaus' fingers. "Father won't like it."

Niklaus merely rolled his eyes and bent over by the water to clean his hands.

Kol smirked at Kaja then, crossing his arms, "And you look like a little savage, of course. Maybe you should go living with the wolves on the other side of the woods, seeing that you love emulating them so much."

Kaja glared at him and stepped forward to presumably punch his little brother in the face, when Niklaus grabbed her arm and pulled her back quickly.  
"Maybe you should stop being an ass, Kol," he replied, calmly.

Elijah shook his head, hiding a smile. _Not possible_ he thought.

Kaja freed her arm from Niklaus' grasp and smiled at him gently. Then she looked at Kol, narrowing her deep, blue eyes. "I'm not sure he could stop being himself," she snorted. Niklaus laughed loudly and Elijah did the same, although he tried to conceal it. Kol scowled at her, unimpressed.

"However," she continued, her lips twitching upwards. She had a wicked gleam in her eyes. "You could -" she stepped forward.

"Cool your head."

When realization hit him, it was too late. Kaja pushed Kol with both hands. There was a loud _splash_ as Kol fell backwards into the water. Elijah could only stare as the events unfolded before his eyes, befuddled. Kol resurfaced, looking like a drowned peacock, roaring curses and obscenities. "I WILL KILL YOU, KAJA! I WILL!"

Kaja and Niklaus were too busy laughing to pay him any attention.

.

.

.

Days later, Elijah woke long before the sun, feeling restless and weary. Only yesterday his father had announced that they would held a midsummer feast – the very first in this new land they were only just beginning to call home.

Elijah knew that he was born in the cold lands beyond the sea, but he couldn't remember them, after all he had only been a toddler when his parents had left their motherland for the green lands they heard about. They were Vikings, travelling the seas was in their blood, yet they settled down in Vinland, going as far south as any of their people had ever gone, conquering for themselves a rich and fertile piece of land, content in living as farmers for the rest of their lives.

But that didn't mean they had abandoned their gods and their traditions.

His parents had been teaching him and his siblings about the gods ever since he could remember. He knew them as he knew his own father and mother – Odin and Frigga. Finn his elder brother could only be the wise and gentle god Balder, Niklaus saw beauty in the smallest of things – he was Bragi, the clever and learned bard of Valhalla, hall of warriors.

Kol, the sly, the trickster, Loki, god of Mischief …

He knew the gods, but he had never spoken about them like his mother did, nor prayed to them like his father had. He didn't see them in his dreams like Kaja did, nor he felt them in the nature like Kol. Niklaus painted them with mud and leaves, Rebekah sometimes looked up at the sky searching for a sign.

When Henrik was born Finn sacrificed his horse and prayed the gods to let him live.

Elijah didn't have any kind of connection to them and it worried him, it scared his mother and irked his father.

"Having a god or goddess walking your life with you means you are never alone," Kaja had said once, when he had asked her to pray with him. She was a _volva_ , a witch, like his mother, she felt the gods more deeply than anyone else, they whispered to her.

They never whispered to him. He _was_ alone.

Glancing at his slumbering pile of siblings, Elijah silently slid out of the bed, letting his furs fall smoothly on Niklaus, and then he was out of the room, and after one last glance to assure himself no one woke up, he was out of the house.

Outside the world was still sleeping, only the slightest pink in the sky announced the slow but sure arrival of a new morning.

He knew that if his mother or – he shuddered – his father knew what he was about to do, he would be beaten first and then forbidden from ever getting a foot out of the house again.

The witch he was going to visit was a woman who had been shunned by her own people, for whatever reason. The locals called her the One-eyed Serpent, because she had lost an eye in the ceremony which gave her the status of exiled, and serpent because her skin was slowly turning a faint green because of a deadly sickness.

Elijah didn't really care what she was called nor why she had been exiled – he found that most women in positions of power were suspiciously almost always accused of awful crimes.

He only cared that she was a powerful witch, a seeress even, possibly the only one who could and would tell him what was _wrong_ with him.

Her small hut was beyond the lands which belonged to his family, and further west than the lands belonging to the wolf tribe his father warned him about.

 _Sköl and Hati chase the Sun through the sky every day, trying to eat it._

Shivering, Elijah kept going and going until he was in the middle of the woods. The small hut was a pile of hay and rocks that seemed to be held together only by a feat a magic – Elijah could only wonder.

Pushing the decaying door open he walked inside. It was a tiny quarter filled to the brim with jars, cauldrons and pots. Herbs and many kinds of flowers hung from the ceiling. The stench was almost unbearable.

On a bed of furs laid the sorceress, seemingly sound asleep.

Without knowing why Elijah felt his heart race. He stood still for what felt like centuries in the crowded room that smelled like hel.

A moment later the old woman cracked her one left eye open; Elijah held his breath, felt his own eyes widening so much he thought they were going to fall off his bulbs.

The _volva_ was silent for a moment, observing him with a blank expression. "Why are you here?" she whispered.

He felt his skin crawl, but his father taught him to be brave. "Wise one," he shivered, "I need your counsel."

She grinned at him, yellow teeth bared at him, "Of course you do, boy. I feel you, you are lost." She pulled the furs aside and settled her legs on the floor. "I see you now."

She raised and walked to the table in the middle of the house to sit on a chair. The seeress dragged her words out like a hunter dragging his dead prey behind him.

Elijah came closer and pulled a chair to sit in front of her. Suddenly he was not afraid, did not care about the smell. "Tell me about the gods, will they ever speak to me?

"Will they ever _not_ speak to you?" the old woman replied in kind, smiling with irony once again. She was the ugliest creature Elijah had ever seen, with her missing eye and greenish, wrinkled skin, but still he was there hanging on every word she uttered.

Elijah blinked confused, "What does that mean?"

The sorceress sighed like a dying animal. "It means the gods are watching you. It means they have a plan for you."

Elijah scooted the chair closer to the ugly witch. "What are you saying? I do not understand." He shook his head. "Please, speak to me of the gods."

The One-Eyed Serpent looked at her palm and presented it to him.

It was known that the witch would sing you stories of the gods – if you licked her palm for good fortune.

It made no sense whatsoever, and was gross to boot. But no one argued with a vessel of the gods. It could be worse, he reckoned – she could have asked for blood. And having a _volva_ for a mother told him exactly how dangerous that was.

Elijah took her hand into his and licked a stripe along her palm. "What do you say then? Won't you give me a story that will make me understand?"

The witch looked at her palm, where Elijah had blessed her and maybe she was thinking about all the people who put their tongues there. She had power as long as others believed she was a vessel of the gods.

"Which story do you want me to sing, Elijah son of Mikael? Child of Freyr?" She croaked, closing her good eye shut. "About Odin, the one-eyed father of gods who pursues knowledge throughout the worlds? Or about Freyia, the beautiful, seiðr-working goddess who rides to battle to choose among the slain? Oh, maybe you wish for Loki's tale, the mischief god who brought many sufferings and tragedies to the gods?"

She laughed, "Stories, you all want stories. Yet all stories end, even yours, creature of a thousand lives – so choose wisely what you want because I shan't receive you again."

Elijah was in a state of mind that could only be described as half terrified and half greedy – greedy for knowledge, for the future, for _everything_. "Tell me of my family. What do you see?"

She raised her hand in the air as if she felt a presence he did not. "I see a village bathed in blood, I see ashes and deaths, hearts you shall take when the moon is full and her children come for the youngest one. A yellow flower that will open its fang and burn you."

Elijah shivered, furious all of sudden, and jumped up from his chair. " _I do not understand you, woman!_ What of my brothers and sisters?"

But the woman only smiled, her horrible teeth bared once again. "I see you all in the world of the dead and your father with you, but not your mother for she is the mother of monsters. You will die a thousand times and live a thousand lives, but only one of you shall reach _Valhöll_. Another will go to _Fólkvangr_ _. The rest of you to_ _Hel_ _and may the goddess have mercy on you."_

She must have seen how white he had gotten because she stopped speaking for a moment. "Poor child, your life shall be miserable and your deaths shallow. You will take no wife and father no children. Your legacy shall be blood and broken oaths."

And she laughed and laughed and _laughed_.


End file.
